ushernet Chapter 774: Soul Battle [Part 1]
Chapter 774: Soul Battle [Part 1]
Chapter 774: Soul Battle [Part 1]
Northern sighed.
'... Still, the thought of letting that bastard in-without knowing if it would even work-it's a gamble. If I'm wrong... I might lose my soul to it.'
But what were the chances that he was wrong?
Void was the origination of all things. In a way, it was the explicit beginning. Even Chaos was born from it—at least, to some degree.@@@@
His understanding of these concepts was fragmented. He couldn't definitively say this or that, not yet.
But he was willing to bet-heavily-that the Void within him would either consume the Shadow Enthrall... or at the very least, scare the shit out of it.
However...
What if the Shadow Enthrall was ancient enough-powerful enough to seize control of his body without disturbing the Void?
What if it could coexist with it?
Northern shook his head, chasing the thoughts away.
'The deeper I think about it, the more I overthink it. I could be right... but I could just as easily be wrong.'
Regardless, the only path forward seemed clear now.
A battle of souls.
Northern's gaze swept across the endless swarm of shadow wraiths surrounding him.
It was like a city of millions, all forming a closing circle around a single man.
And they never stopped charging.
He vanished-only to reappear elsewhere.
Again and again, shifting from one corner of the abyss to the next.
But the result was always the same.
There was no escape.
So he did the only thing left to do.
He surrendered.
Northern exhaled slowly, casting one last look at the wraiths before him.
Then, he stilled.
It took everything in him not to move-not to react on instinct. But he froze, suppressing every impulse to evade.
And then-
The shadow weapons and claws fell upon him.
The moment the first shadow so much as brushed the tip of his subtly flowing hair-
A surge erupted.
Every single shadow. Every wraith. The entire mass of the mist-
All of it flushed into his body with frightening intensity.
It poured into him, not just through one entry, but through every single opening in his head.
Eyes. Nose. Mouth. Ears.
It was like drowning in darkness.
Northern's body froze.
Even though he tried to move-tried to command his limbs-they did not respond.
For the first time, he felt something else in control.
A foreign presence.
Before him, darkish-blue flames flickered and danced, their eerie glow casting shifting shadows across his face.
The hall of endless titanic pillars was bathed in azure radiance.
Ornamental stars shimmered faintly, woven into the very fabric of the palace, their gentle
glow adding an air of subtle majesty to the scene.
The shadows looming across the sky rippled with a thunderous roll-a deep, reverberating pulse that sent tremors across the Void Palace.
For a fleeting moment, they paused, suspended in an eerie stillness.
Then-
They surged.
A tide of darkness descended, flowing into the palace, cascading through the towering
windows that glowed with an unyielding blue radiance.
Like a relentless storm, the Shadow Enthrall poured into the heart of the Void Palace,
consuming it in an instantaneous night.
The atmosphere shifted.
The entire palace darkened, its mystic glow suffocated, swallowed by the invading presence.
And with it-
The monster's dignity manifested.
Northern's frown deepened-a dark, sinister frown.
He had always known that Apex monsters were cheats-an unnatural force that bent the
balance of both monsters and rifts alike.
But now, he realized he had terribly underestimated them.
This was the third Apex he had encountered.
And none of them had been relatively easy to face.
In fact-
The Apex Belial had been the easiest of them all. And somehow, that thought alone felt so, so
wrong.
But there was no time to linger on that.
Not when-
The sky of shadows had begun to materialize before his very eyes.
Northern remained unmoved.
His expression hardened that ferocious frown never breaking, locked in place like an
unyielding decree.
A majestic glow of power emanated from his eyes-not just of power, but the authority of
power itself.
And he waited.
He watched.
Watched as the Shadow Enthrall became vulnerable.
This was it.
The moment he had been waiting for.
The moment the bastard would finally reveal its true body.